


Jack Isn't Dead

by Samking



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Zombies, F/M, Homophobic Language, M/M, Violence, Way too many card games, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-09 00:59:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16440089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samking/pseuds/Samking
Summary: Ben Arnold's life hasn't changed much since the zombie apocalypse. That changes though when a man comes into town and needs help unraveling a conspiracy about what really happened two years ago when the zombies arrived.I'm bad a summaries, I just did a thought experiment one night while doing dishes of how King Falls would fare a zombie apocalypse and this is the result.The story doesn't have anything to do with Night Vale Present's Alice isn't Dead I just thought the title was cool and so I stole it.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for this chapter: homophobic slurs, non-descriptive medical procedure, zombies,  
> If you notice anything I missed, please let me know in the comments and I will update the list. Because warnings will be different for each chapter I will post warnings at the beginning of the chapters.

Ben Arnold had been playing cards with Mr. Sheffield when they brought the man from the woods in. He played Rummy with his former teacher every Thursday afternoon when he was done with tilling the fields and helping the Libbydale’s with their wheat crop. When the zombie apocalypse happens you learn how to pull your keep to stay in the community and survive. He wasn’t a big guy, there were a lot of short jokes at his expense, and he had a big heart which made hunting not his strong suit unlike most of the other guys his age. King Falls had weathered the zombie hoards better than most other communities, but when the supernatural were an everyday occurrence even before the apocalypse there were just certain things you were prepared for. Other communities who had been adjacent to King Falls prior to the zombies hadn’t fared as well, and many of the survivors had joined the King Falls community. But they had pretty much all relocated to the community within the first six months after the disaster and they hadn’t seen hide or hair of anyone else since then. Till now.

Ben knew there had been other surviving communities across the United States and Canada, he was on the rotation for the radio. Ameteur radio was their only source of communication to the outside world, and what they heard were bleak reports, but hopeful. Zombies were seen less and less by some communities, including King Falls. They hadn’t had a zombie sighting in nearly six weeks and that had been by a group had been heading back from the power plant on the otherside of Big Pines to make sure that was still in working condition. So it hadn’t really been near King Falls.

Most days, aside from the fact that they farmed for their own food and didn’t have things like cell service and tv it was like life before the zombies had come. Ron Begley still ran a bait and tackle shop, Arche Simmons bred dogs, it just wasn’t Pomchis anymore, Mayor Grisham was still the mayor, there were still vampires and werewolves, and Rose’s diner still made the best pancake puppies around.

He frowned at the six that was buried under at least five different cards. He had a run that was nearly complete if only he had the six. Did he pick up the other five cards in hopes that he could find something to do with them before Mr. Sheffield ran out of cards? Decisions, decisions. “Are ya going to play, Benny?” Mr Sheffield slurred. Even two years into the apocalypse and he still was the same old drunk. Then again, that was how a lot of people dealt with their new life. Maybe Mr. Sheffield had the right idea.

Fine. Ben picked up the six and the five cards on top of it, then began sorting his cards in the right order three, four, five, six, seven, eigh- “Ben!” Ben jerked his head around at the sound of his name. Pete Myers was running up towards them as they played cards on Mr. Sheffield’s front porch. “Your-” wheeze “mom-” wheeze “needs you.” Ben dropped all his cards. His mom had been a nurse a Big Pine Memorial Hospital before the zombies and now she ran the intown clinic helping the citizens of King Falls with all their day to day injuries and illnesses. Ben helped her out when he was available, he could stitch up wounds with the best of them. But she normally didn’t send a runner to come find him unless it was something serious.

“I have to go.” Ben said in apology to Mr. Sheffield.

“It’s alright Bennie, we can play next week. Herschel should be getting back soon anyway.” Mr. Sheffield said. Ben nodded and then followed Pete back to the inner part of town where he and his mom lived above her clinic.

“I’m here.” He announced as he walked in. His mother was hovering over someone on the table, her wiry curls pinned tightly to the back of her hair in a bun.

“Go wash your hands, I need you.” She ordered, not even looking up from their patient. Ben hurried to the sink in what used to be a kitchen, and then hurried to his mother’s side. A blond man lay on the table that Ben had never seen before. He knew most of the residents of King Falls, even the newcomers from Big Pines and some of the other adjacent communities, but he was pretty sure this man was someone new. He had a large branch sticking out of his shoulder, and had cuts and bruises all over his face. “Hold him down.” His mother ordered as she grabbed on to the stick.

“Jack.” The man moaned quietly as Ben grabbed onto the man’s arm and other shoulder.

“On three.” His mother said, glancing at Ben. “One, two, three.” She pulled on the stick as Ben pushed down on the man to make sure he didn’t jerk and hurt himself even more. With one good pull his mother pulled out the stick which Ben could then see hadn’t been just a stick, it had been carved into a point like a spear. Someone had done this to this man. “I'll take care of this one. He’s got some cuts on his chest that need to be stitched up.”

It was then that Ben noticed that the random cuts on the man’s chest actually spelt something out, albeit crudely. F-A-G. Ben’s stomach dropped as he realized why this man had been attacked. Even during the apocalypse some people couldn’t put their personal hatred and biases away. Ben reached for the needle that was in the tray his mother kept by the table when performing any type of surgeries. He sterilized it quickly with the lighter that was beside it, and quickly threaded the white sewing thread before pinching the man’s skin and beginning to sew it back together.

“What happened?” Ben asked when both he and his mom were done. Ben applied antiseptic to the man’s wounds and stitched up any other cuts that looked too big. “Who is he?”

“I don’t know.” Betty Arnold said, pushing back a stray strand of hair that had fallen out of place. “Troy Kreighouser and a few of the other guys were out hunting when they spotted him. He was out of it then, and he hasn’t really been coherent since.”

“He said Jack right before we pulled the spear from him.” Ben pointed out.

“That doesn’t give us much to go on though. We’ll just wait for him to wake up to interrogate him. I’m sure the mayor will want to speak with him once he wakes.” Betty said, there was exhaustion in her voice.

“Will he wake up?”

“Yes, I think so. He seems like he’s a fighter.” Betty nudged Ben with her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

Ben sighed and clenched his hands against his jeans. “You saw what they carved on his chest.”

“Yeah.” Betty said. “Just because zombies kill a good percentage of the population doesn’t mean they stop being bigots.”

“I’m grateful of just how supportive most of the town has been of me, of Ron, of Archie.” Ben whispered. He had come out as bisexual when he was in high school. It had been rough at first, the other kids would whisper about him, they shunned him a little, but after the zombies people seemed to care less. Betty leaned over and kissed Ben’s forehead, and pulled him closer. Ben leaned into her, he had always found comfort in his mother, especially after watching his father drink himself into an early death. She had become a single mother so suddenly, and he hadn’t always understood their fiances and been such a little shit about it.

A whimper of pain brought Ben’s awareness back to the fact that they had a visitor. He got up alongside Betty to check on the patient. “Who-” The man mumbled, his eyes were half open, half shut, and he reached with his other hand to touch his injured shoulder. “Where-”

“You’re in King Falls, Idaho.” Betty said. “You need to relax though, you sustained an a wound that almost shattered your shoulder.”

“King- King Falls?” The man asked in disbelief.

“Can you tell us your name?” Ben asked.

“Sammy.” The man said as he fell back into the realm of unconsciousness.

Betty frowned. “He’ll probably do that all night. Someone will need to stay with him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.” She turned to Ben. “Why don’t you start dinner and I’ll stay down here with him and you can come down later to watch over him.”

“Okay.”

Dinner was a quiet affair, they had some boxed pasta, that one of their scouting parties had found in the Walmart warehouse a few towns over, still and some of the homemade tomato sauce that Mrs. Myers had given his mother when she sewed up Mr. Myers after he had an accident with a knife a few weeks back. Money didn’t really mean anything anymore, it was one of the first lessons everyone had had to learn after the zombies. It reminded Ben of stories he used to hear in history classes about the way things were back when King Falls and the rest of Idaho were being settled. Settler’s banded together and helped one another out, and for the most part Ben felt that King Falls had done that.

Ben brought his mom a bowl once he had finished making it, and even left some for Sammy if he woke up again. About ten o'clock that evening his mother made her way upstairs. “Can you watch him?” She asked kissing Ben’s forehead. “I’ll talk to Mr. Libbydale in the morning about giving you the day off.”

“Yeah.” Ben said getting up off the couch where he had been reading and heading downstairs. He took his book with him, if he wasn’t going to be able to sleep he might as well do something. Books were hot commodity these days, pretty much the only way to entertain yourself outside of adult rated things, or gossiping. He was currently reading Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy, he loved fantasy and that was sometimes he only way he could forget that society as they had known it had collapsed.

Vin had been getting ready to assassinate Lord Straff when Ben heard the other man in the room stir. Gently Ben placed the book down and went over to Sammy. “Can I get you anything?” Ben asked.

“Water.” The man said horsley. Ben hurried over to grab one of the plastic cups and filled it up with water from the tap. Then he gently put it to the other man’s mouth to help him drink.

“You need to stay lying down, you were hurt pretty badly.” Ben instructed. The other man- Sammy- attempted to sit up despite Ben’s words. “Lay down. You’ll tear your stitches and I’m not stitching you up again.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Ben, Ben Arnold.” Ben said with a smile. “Do you remember where you are?” Sammy gave him a confused look. “You woke up briefly a few hours ago and wanted to know where you were.” Ben explained. Sammy shook his head. “You’re in a small mountain town called King Falls. We’re in Idaho.”

“How,” Sammy swallowed whatever spit was in his mouth. “How did you survive?”

“Me personally or the town?” Ben asked.

“Both, I guess.” Sammy said. He tried to sit up again.

“Let me get you some pillows that you can prop yourself up with.” Ben said hurrying over to the couch. “Since you won’t lie down.” He muttered. He pulled some of the pillows that were on the couch and put them underneath Sammy’s head and back so he could sit up without aggravating his shoulder.

“Thank you, Ben.” Sammy said. Ben sat down in one of the chairs beside the bed that was usually reserved for family members of the patient.

“King Falls survived because we were prepared, I guess. We already had and still have a lot of supernatural occurances around town. Zombies were just one more thing to add to the mix.” Ben shrugged. “We heard the news and were able to prepare.” Ben remembered that day two years ago when zombies appeared for the first time, how a lot of the residents had gotten up on their rooftops and picked off zombies like snipers. It wasn’t hard, and zombies went down fairly easily despite what popular culture had depicted them as. They had gotten lucky that day, hadn’t lost anybody. In future waves they hadn’t been so lucky.

“I see.” Sammy said quietly.

“What about you?” Ben asked.

“I was in Chicago.” Sammy said, “I was a radio host there. After the initial carnage was over a group of us decided to find somewhere safer. None of the big cities were safe, the zombies were able to hide easily in the buildings, and with so many people it was just a feeding ground for them.

“Most of the group is gone now. We got picked off by zombies or other gangs of people or just bad luck.” Sammy curled in on himself a little. Ben reached out a hand and put it on the man’s good shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” Ben said quietly.

“Not your fault.” Sammy shrugged. “Thank you though for helping me.”

Ben sat there quietly with Sammy waiting for the other man to say something. He had never really thought about what the world outside of the mountains, what it must have been like to be in one of the big cities when the zombies arrived. Ben wasn’t sure the exact timeline of what happened, mostly just rumor and hearsay that Channel Thirteen had reported on. He knew the outbreak started in California with some patients who were in Sacramento, that no one had realized that some of those infected had gotten on planes though for other parts of the country. After California the biggest outbreak had happened in Chicago and Detroit before spreading eastward.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m looking for someone.” Sammy said. “I’ll get started again once I’m all healed up.”

“It’ll probably be a few months.” Ben pointed out. “That spear nearly shattered your collar bone. Mom’s going to put you in a sling tomorrow.” Sammy made a grumbling noise. “Sorry, buddy.”

“No- it’s, it’s fine.” Sammy said falling back into the pillows. “I guess I could use some time to rest. Haven’t really done so since-” Whatever he was going to say he thought better of it and clamped his mouth shut.

“Do you want anything to eat. I could reheat some left over pasta.” Ben offered.

“No, thank you. I just want to sleep.” Sammy said closing his eyes and then opening them again. “Can you remove some of the pillows?”

“Yeah, sure.” Ben scrambled to grab some of the pillows he had put under the other man so that he could sit up without aggravating his injury. “If you need anything I’ll be on the couch.” Ben indicated towards the couch he had been sitting on prior to Sammy waking up. “Just hollar, I guess.”

Sammy snorted. “Okay then.”

Ben sat and listened to the soft sounds of Sammy breathing across the room as he slept. It was soothing in a way that Ben couldn’t explain. He went back to reading Mistborn until at some point in the night he too fell asleep, book falling onto his chest.

* * *

 

Sunlight awoke Sammy, it hit his eyelids and wouldn’t go away no matter how much he turned his head on the pillow. Wait pillow? Sammy opened his eyes to see the bare white ceiling of whatever building he was in. It didn’t look like it was in disrepair like most of the other buildings he had spent nights in since the apocalypse happened, no signs of leakage or mold growing on the ceilings, and he was on a table of some sort? Sammy could hear breathing, the soft and rhythmic breathing of someone else in slumber. He attempted to sit up so he could get a better lay out of the room but his right shoulder screamed in pain when he moved it ever so slightly.

The spear, the gang of men whom he had been traveling with for a short while. Their bigotry. He could feel them holding him down, taking their knives to his chest, stabbing a spear into his shoulder and laughing about how homos deserved a slow and painful death. But he wasn’t dead- this wasn’t an afterlife was it?

Vague memories of talking to someone named Ben last night resurfaced. No, he was in a place called King Falls, a place that had survived somehow. Sammy envied them. Chicago where he had lived had been destroyed, its population decimated and he had barely escaped with his life.

It had been a Tuesday, Jack had invited Lily to take a week off after her big trip to Russia to investigate a corruption scandal there. He had guilt tripped her really, told her he missed her and that they never saw each other. That had been partially Sammy’s fault, he and Lily had an antagonistic relationship with one another, and she had assumed- correctly- that he and Jack’s decision to leave their radio show to become shock jocks was Sammy’s idea. Sammy only felt partially guilty for that, he had asked Lily to come with them, she was the one who had refused. He had heard on the tv that there had been some kind of health problem in Sacramento, a new virus or something but he hadn’t really paid attention to it. Jack had wanted to show Lily the sights of Chicago, Jack loved Chicago, and he wanted to show Lily everything.

Then came the news of the quarantine, first it was just O’Haare airport, a passenger from a flight from Sacramento appeared to be sick. And then reports came in that there was something about the virus that was mutating people. Sammy suggested they get out of the city and go visit the lake house, the one he and Jack were renovating to have as their own.  To live in together. And then everything just seemed to happen at once, they had been on Interstate 90 when the hordes just seemed to appear. They attacked the cars, the people trying to flee. The worst part was there wasn’t even anywhere to go, the cars in front of them blocked the way out of Chicago and the zombies blocked the way back in. It had been makeshift weapons and running for their lives.

Two years later and Sammy still wasn’t sure how all three of them made it out alive. But they had by some miracle and he was grateful. Jack had had nightmares about the carnage for months after and he had begun to talk about how the Science Institute was behind it all. More of his conspiracy and supernatural mumbo-jumbo that Sammy had learned how to tune out during their relationship. Jack’s belief in the supernatural had never been something Sammy understood. Jack began to talk about how Leeland Hill had said that the world would fall to the undead and that only the chosen few would survive, it was part of the doctrine of the Science Institute. Jack and Lily had grown up in the cult, their parents were still both members even though the two of them had run for the hills as soon as they were able to. All the way to Florida.

According to Jack, Leland promised to inoculate his followers to protect them from the zombie hoards. Claimed he had experimented on some of the children of his followers, Sammy never asked if that included him and Lily too. Proof of that came a year later.

They had been in Nebraska, traveling with a group of survivors when a horde surprised them. Sammy supposed they had gotten careless because they hadn’t seen any zombies in a while, it didn’t really matter. Most of their group had been killed or turned, but once again he, Jack, and Lily had made it out. When they were first attacked in Chicago they hadn’t known a scratch could turn you. That it worked a lot like the transference of HIV or Hepatitis or Ebola, that it had to be a transfer of bodily fluid, usually blood- though Sammy would imagine sex would likely work too.

It wasn’t until that night that anyone realized how deep the gashes on Jack’s back from one of the zombies was. No way the zombie virus hadn’t transferred there was zombie blood all over him, and it always did on cuts that deep. Jack begged him and Lily to kill him once the virus overtook him, and Sammy agreed to do it. He didn’t tell Jack he would turn the shotgun on himself once he had killed him. Lily knew though, she understood. Sammy wouldn’t live without Jack. It usually took about twelve hours for the virus to start mutating, first it started with a rapid deterioration in brain process, and then the skin started to turn a sallow gray color. He and Lily stayed up all night watching Jack.

But Jack had woken up the next morning fine. Brain still functioning properly, no desire for raw meat, his skin a healthy tan color. Sammy had thanked whatever higher being that he had never believed in before for keeping Jack safe.

And then something similar happened to Lily about three months later when they were in Kansas. She too got scratched so deeply she should have turned but didn’t. Jack began to bring up his conspiracies again that they had been tested on as children growing up in the Science Institute. Jack wanted to run a test to see if it had just been a fluke or if he couldn’t be mutated. Sammy had objected wholeheartedly, but once Jack got an idea in his head he wouldn’t let it go. Even bad ones.

Jack got scratched again a week after Lily, and Sammy was on pins and needles the entire night hoping that the miracle would happen again. And it did.

Then they took him away six months later Jack and Lily boht. Sammy wasn’t sure who exactly they were, but he would bet his bottom dollar that the Science Institute was behind it.

“Oh, hey you’re awake. How’re you feeling?” The young man from last night asked him jerking Sammy out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” Sammy asked disoriented. “Sore, confused.” His stomach made a rumbling sound. “Hungry too, I guess.”

“Well you’re in luck then, Mom’s making oatmeal upstairs.” The man- Ben, was that his name- Ben said with a wide smile. “Here, let me get you some pillows so you can sit up.” Ben ran over to the couch and grabbed pillows from it again.

“Thank you.” Sammy said appreciatively as he sat up. It was then that he noticed that there was a microwave on a table in the corner of the room with its numbers lit up to read the time. “Electricity?” When was the last time he had seen electricity? Had to be soon after Chicago.

“Yeah, we have a hydro-electric power company. Once we got it up and running again we got most of our electronics back. I mean sure we don’t have tv or cell phones, or the internet, but we make due.” Ben laughed scratching the back of his head. This town… Sammy couldn’t really remember much of being brought in, just shape and colors. But this town hadn’t just survived the apocalypse but it was thriving too.

“Oh he’s awake.” A woman’s voice said, Sammy turned his attention to her. There was no mistaking that she wasn’t related to Ben, they had the same wiry black curls pulled close to their head, the same shape of the face, the same smile, and even the same height. “Good. It’s good to see you’re awake Sammy, Ben said you woke up last night.”

She had a bowl in her hand, it was white mostly with sunflowers decorating the bottom half. Steam rose from it, and a silver spoon was already in it. “Ben yours is upstairs. I want to check on his injuries.” Ben nodded solemnly glancing towards the bandage on Sammy’s chest before going upstairs. The woman smiled at him reassuringly before placing the bowl beside Sammy.

“What does it say?” Sammy asked.

The woman took a deep breath, collecting herself before responding. “Fag.” Sammy felt numb. “Unfortunately it's going to scar. Ben did his best with the stitching, but it had been carved in you for hours before we could stich it back together.” She reached out to place a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll leave.” Sammy said. He understood, really he did. Small towns and all that.

“No.” The woman’s voice came out harsher than he thought she intended to. “Benny is upset. He struggled with coming out and King Falls for the most part has been really open and accepting. Wasn’t always like that but after the zombies well- we take care of our own. Having him reminded that not everyone or everywhere is as open minded after the apocalypse happened-  it bothered him.”

“Ben is-”

“Bi.”

“How many people saw it?” Sammy had never been out, not really, not to the public. Now with this word carved into his chest he would never be able to hide it.

“Um, a few. Troy Kreighouser- he’s the one who carried you in, Ron Bagley- he won’t say anything, uh- shit I think Pete Myers saw. Biggest blabber mouth in King Falls- well probably outside of Archie and Sheila, but it’s okay. We won’t run you out with pitchfork or torches.” Sammy snorted.

“I guess I’ll get used to people knowing then.” He said trying hard not to crack. Everyone knew, they would know, and they would judge him. Think he should go to hell, that he raped boys, everything he had heard growing up.

“Let’s check on the stitches and make sure nothing’s infected, then we’ll put on a sling and see if we can’t get you up and on your feet again. As your doctor I don’t recommend you run off into the woods and yonder, but I can’t stop you if your mind is set up.”

“I-” Sammy wanted to protest that he wouldn’t do anything so stupid, but his current track record said otherwise. He just laid back down on the pillows instead while she hovered over his right shoulder. Then she carefully pulled up the bandage that was taped there.

“A little pink still, but it's definitely better than last night. I don’t see any sign of pus or infection so that’s good news for you.” She opened a sealed tight wrapper and pulled the new bandage out, and taped it down.

Ben came back down after his mother was done with the rebandaging. “How’s the patient?” He asked hovering over Sammy.

“He’s fine.” Sammy said slightly annoyed that Ben was talking over him. Ben took a sheepish step back. Sammy rolled his eyes and then cringed as Ben’s Mom- he hadn’t caught her name yet- gently shifted his arm so that it would go into the sling.

“You’re going to need to wear this for six weeks.” She instructed.

“Fine.” He agreed as he swung his legs over the side of the table. There was no way he was going to be able to travel while he was wearing this, and Jack would kill him if he fucked up his shoulder just because he was too impatient to listen to the doctors.

There was a knock at the door and Ben rushed over to grab it, nearly tripping over himself in the process. At the door was a mousy woman in her mid-forties, her dark brown hair was in a messy bun and she looked tired. Her white shirt had light brown stains on them, as if there had been attempts to wash out the stain but it never worked. Sammy knew those stains, zombie blood. Zombie’s blood turned brown due to something. Sammy had no idea why, it wasn’t like scientists were able to study and publish their findings before the country was overrun. Maybe the Europeans or the Japanese or somebody not in the North American continent had found a reason. Did they even know if there were people alive here? That there were small mountain towns thriving still?

“Mary.” Ben’s mom said warmly. “Nice to see you, the kids alright?”

“Yeah, they’re fine Betty. Tim told me they found someone out in the woods hurt mighty badly and I- I wanted to bring some of Tim’s old clothes for him. I figure he probably won’t be able to fit into Ben’s.” Mary reached back for reusable bag behind her, one of the old grocery store ones.

“Hello.” Sammy said a bit stiffly.

“Hi.” Mary said coming over to shake his hand. “It’s good to see that you’re okay. Tim said they found you with a branch embedded in your shoulder.” Sammy snorted self deprecating.

“Yeah.” He waited for her to say something about the word that had been carved into him, the one now hidden behind a bandage on his chest. The one that exposed him to everyone. But she didn’t, her eyes didn’t even linger on his chest at all. She just pulled out a green and blue flannel button down shirt from the bag.

“Should we cut off one of the sleeves so he can try it on?” Mary asked.

“No.” Sammy objected. “I can get it on if someone helps me with the sling.” It wasn’t the first time he’d had his arm in a sling. Back when he was in college Jack had convinced him to try rugby out which had been an unmitigated disaster and wound Sammy with a torn shoulder ligament.

Ben hurried over and helped him get the strap over his head so he could slide his arm out. The shirt was a little broader in the shoulders than he was. It reminded Sammy of wearing Jack’s shirts, of how they were just too big on him. He would wear Jack’s Shotgun Saturday Nights shirts sometimes before. Now- now he had nothing of Jack’s, nothing except for- “My ring.” Sammy reached for his neck, he never took it off.

“What?” Ben asked. Sammy looked at him panicked, grabbing at his collar.

“Jack’s ring.” He said with horror. “It’s missing.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Zombies, violence, homophobia, survivors guilt, let me know if you see something I should add.

Ben didn’t spend a lot of time with Troy anymore. They had been friends back in middle school and then drifted apart in high school. Ben did theatre and the Ham Radio Club while Troy was a football player. Then after high school Troy went to be a deputy in the police force while Ben went to Boise for four years to get his degree in journalism. After the zombies Troy was routinely with hunting parties and the watch rotation while Ben farmed and worked the radio keeping them in contact with the other communities. But it didn’t feel awkward walking with him through the woods for the area where he and the others had found Sammy. “I mean what kind of a man does that to another person and all because of who they love?” Troy said. He had a shotgun with him while they walked in case they ran into anything unwanted. Ben carried a knife at his hip but he hoped that Troy would take care of anything before they got close enough for Ben to need it.

“The lowest of the low.” Ben growled as they traced the footsteps of yesterday’s hunting party that had found Sammy. It was a warm summer’s day which made the walk comfortable. They had left Sammy with Ben’s mom and Mary who were fussing over the man for the loss of his one connection to Jack his fiance. Sammy hadn’t given a lot of details about him, just said he was gone.

There was a lot of people just gone, no way of knowing what happened to them. The Libbydales had a son who had been in Boise for college when the apocalypse broke out, they never got in touch with him. It was easier now after two years to assume that the gone were dead. But people didn’t give up hope that easy and whether Sammy knew it or not he had just brought hope back into King Falls, hope that there were survivors out there, ones that hadn’t ended up in towns like them, ones that had isolated themselves and survived.

“This is about the place.” Troy said, they were about a mile into Sweetzer Forest around the base of one of the mountains that surrounded King Falls. Ben crouched down to search the leaves. “I remember that tree, looked like it had a face on it.” He pointed to a nearby tree with a strange knot in it.

“Yeah it does.” Ben agreed.

He and Troy searched through the leaves and brush for anything that resembled a ring, no one had probably been in this part of the woods before yesterday in about six months. Well no one from King Falls, how often had that gang of homophobic ruffians come here, this close to the town. “Is Sheriff Gunderson going to put up a watch in this area to see if those low lifes return?” Ben asked.

Troy looked suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think so, sorry Ben. He says we’re stretched out thin as it is.” Ben crossed his arms, stretched out thin, that didn’t make sense, most of the watch complained that there was too many people and not enough jobs. There had been talk of going out to see if there was anybody in Boise left about a year ago but Gunderson had shut that down saying that it was too dangerous and anybody who left wouldn’t be allowed back in.

“He said something homophobic didn’t he?”

“Gosh darn it, Ben, yes. He said that if people didn’t want to be attacked they should be normal and he wasn’t going to waste resources on it.” Troy said. “I don’t agree with him, you know that, right?”

Troy was a good man, not a mean bone in his body. He had supported Ben when he came out, and all he ever wanted to do was good. No, Ben didn’t believe that Troy supported Gunderson’s words, but that didn’t mean that other people in King Falls didn’t. They wouldn’t harm Ben or Ron or Arche, stables in the town but that didn’t mean they were going to go out of their way to protect them. It made King Falls seem… less. Ben didn't like that, he loved King Falls, it's why he came back after college when all his journalism friends told him he was stupid that he should go to one of the big cities. Cronkite, Brokaw, Ben Arnold and all that. Ben just couldn’t give the town up, weird happenings and shitty politicians and all.

“Yeah, I know that.” Ben said as something shiny caught his eye about twenty yard away. Something shiny hanging from a tree. “Troy, I think-”

Suddenly Troy stopped walking, and put a hand on Ben’s chest to stop him too. Ben gave him a questioning look but Troy put a finger on his lips and brought the shotgun from a resting position to a readying one. They stood there in the silent woods, Sweezer Forrest was never this quiet. Ben felt his heart race, the animals didn’t disappear unless- zombies. Ben pointed at the shiny object hanging from the tree. He couldn’t see the zombies, maybe they were further in or something. Why had they come back?

Troy shook his head.

Ben took a long sweeping view of the forest surrounding them. Other than it was dead silent everything seemed normal. He decided to make a run for it, he would go grab the ring and come back.

“Ben, come back!” Troy hissed as Ben dashed around his arm. “Ben!”

Ben put his hand around the chain that was hanging off the tree branch when it jumped out of the tree at him. “Oh my god.” Ben shouted jumping back.

“Ben!” Troy shouted. Then there was the sound of a shotgun blast and the zombie fell backwards, bullet in its chest.

“Holy shit!” Ben shouted, he felt sick. As he looked at the size of the zombie he realized that the creature had once been a child and it just jumped out of tree to eat him and it was dead. It had been dead for a while, but- Ben bent over and threw up.

“Are you okay?” Troy asked jogging over. “Oh, Ben.”

“It was a child, Troy.” Ben said. “Goddamnit what is this world?”

“Ben, I’m so sorry. I know you don’t go out on patrols. Is this- is this your first time?”

“Nearly being killed by a zombie? Yeah.” Ben said averting his eyes from the creature. Please watch over their souls, Ben begged silently to whatever or whoever was left to watch over them.

“Come on, lets go before more come.” Troy said shepherding Ben away from the remains of the zombie.

Troy kept the shot gun at a ready position for their walk back. The easy camaraderie of the walk there was gone and was instead replaced by a tense silence. Ben twirled the ring in his fingers. It was from some university in Florida if Ben could make out the small writing on it. On the inside was engraved Jack Wright ‘02. At least they had found the ring, that this hadn’t been for nothing. “You’ll tell Gunderson about the zombie?” Ben asked as they entered the town. The sun was starting to set and Ben felt weary to the bone.

“Have to.” Troy said. “Haven’t had a zombie that close in a while.” Ben nodded sagely. They split up in the middle of town, Ben going back to his mom’s place and Troy back to the station before he headed up to his own home and to his wife Loretta. She had been the lead cheerleader back when they were in high school.

“Mom, I’m back.” Ben shouted as he entered the surgery.

“Did you find it, Ben?” Betty asked as she came down the stairs.

“Yeah.” Ben said holding up the chain.

“Oh good, Sammy will be relieved.” Betty frowned then. “Are you okay? You look sick.”

“I- Troy and I- we-” Ben took a deep breath and tried to push away the image of the sallow gray child with clumps of hair missing and the gashes up and down her body.

“Ben, what happened?”

“We ran into a zombie.” Ben said and he just collapsed to the floor. “It was a child, Mom. And Troy shot it because it almost got me.” Betty rushed to her son’s side and gathered him in her arms as he sobbed. “Why?”

“Shh,” Betty soothed, stroking Ben’s hair in a comforting measure.

Nothing made sense anymore. Why had this happened? Why to a child? Ben had never thought about child zombies, about how they could be infected too. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair. Ben repeated the mantra over and over again, it wasn’t fair.

“Is- is everything alright?” Sammy asked, Ben looked up to see the blond man standing at the foot of the stairs.

Ben pulled himself out of his mother’s arms. “We found it.” Ben said proffering the ring and chain.

“But something happened.” Sammy said as he walked towards them.

“There was a zombie, it was a kid.” Ben explained. “I-I hadn’t- I had never-”

“No, it’s okay.” Sammy said his voice devoid of emotion. “Thank you for doing this.” He put the chain around his his neck awkwardly with his good hand. “I’m sorry you went through that. It’s never pretty your first time.”

“I’m glad we were able to find it.” Ben said with a soft smile.

It was a quiet night in the house, Betty set up the guest bedroom for Sammy and Ben made a simple dinner of vegetable soup. Then Sammy went into his bedroom, and Ben and Betty stayed out in the common area. Ben continued reading the second Mistborn book, he laid on the small couch while Betty knitted. Ben smiled at the familiarity of watching his mom knit, she had knitted ever since before he was born, a hobby passed to her from her mother to her. She had taught Ben how to do it when he was a child, and sometimes when he felt too strung out and his hands idle he would join her. He felt that way tonight, but he didn’t want to worry her. He couldn't’ focus on what the words on the page in front of him said, what did they matter when the world was hell around him. Why was he lucky enough to have this form of escape when many others were struggling to survive against the zombie hordes. Did they have a responsibility to look for those who were gone like the Libbydale’s son? Should they have just given up on them to retreat into their little mountain town and ignore what was going on around them?

There were child zombies out there, probably even baby zombies though the image was too horrifying for Ben to conjure in his head. Troy had shot a child today, and Ben was glad that he did. Ben was glad that Troy killed the zombie child before the thing had been able to touch him, to hurt him.

Ben shut the book and set it down on the couch. Sammy’s light was still on- would he be willing to talk to him? He knew his mother was watching him as knocked on Sammy’s door. He wished he could turn to her for the answers he sought, but she hadn’t faced down any zombies, she’d stayed back like he had when the zombies came, healing people.

“Come in.” Sammy said. Ben slowly opened the door. Sammy was sprawled on the guest bed, Jack’s ring around his neck still, and he was playing a game of solitaire on the nightstand. “Hey, Ben, what can I do for you?” It took Ben back a little at how friendly Sammy was being, they didn’t know each other well. Maybe Sammy was just that kind of guy once the trauma of being stabbed in the shoulder went down.

“Can I talk to you?” Ben asked, shutting the door behind him.

“Sure.” Sammy gestured to the foot of the bed. “What about?”

“How do you live with surviving?”

* * *

 

Sammy gathered up the cards he had been playing solitaire with. Jack used to do some magic tricks with cards back when they were in college together. He used it to pick up girls at parties. The craziest part was how often it worked, part of it probably was the novelty of the way Jack would pick them up but most of it was just how charming he was. Charisma had never been anything Jack had lacked. “You’re shaking.” Sammy said dodging the question slightly. “Do you know how to play war?” Ben snorted, but nodded nonetheless. “Shuffle these and then deal.” Sammy said handing the younger man the cards.

“Surviving isn’t easy, in fact it is the hardest thing you can do in times like these.” Sammy said, Chicago filled his mind again. The freeway, the way people had just ran, the screaming, and the chaos. “Your town is strong to have made it and thrived the way it has.”

“Mm,” Ben hummed in agreement as he began to deal the cards one at a time between the two players. “We’re used to the supernatural, it's been hanging over us practically since the town was started.”

“The supernatural?” Sammy asked hesitantly. This was sounding like something up Jack’s alley, he always had these little stories about the Mothman, or haunted buildings. One time while they were working in the radio station in Florida Jack convinced him to go up to Savannah to visit some of the haunted houses there. Claimed he took a picture of a ghost while they were there.

“Apparitions, werewolves, vampires, that sort of thing.” Ben said dismissively. Sammy flipped over his first card, a six, Ben had a five. Sammy reached over and picked up the cards. Flip another card, a two this time. “We saw it on the news what happened in Sacramento, and we just circled the wagons I guess. Took in some of the survivors of the adjacent towns after the zombies came through and just kept on going.”

“I don’t know how I made it how of Chicago alive.” Sammy admitted. “Once we did, we were always on the move.”

“We?” Ben asked taking the cards from the middle of the bed. Sammy flipped his fourth card, a Jack. He looked at the card fondly before placing it down.

“Me, Jack, and Jack’s sister Lily. She was visiting us when everything happened. Not sure if I was always grateful she had the misfortune of visiting us because I do know how she would have fared in New York by herself, or if she annoyed the shit out of me so much that I wish she had been in New York.”

“The East Coast made it out okay.” Ben said as he placed down a four, it took SAmmy’s three.

“What?”

“JFK had an infected person enter through their airport as well but by the time that happened there had already been the confusion in Chicago and they were able to contain it better. No one got infected and a lot of the people were able to get to flee the US before the hordes began to arrive.” Ben said calmly placing down a ten which lost to Sammy’s queen.

“How- how do you know that?” SAmmy asked, it seemed incredulous to think that one of the largest population centers in the United States had been able to avoid the zombie hordes. Lily would have made it out had she not come to Chicago, she wouldn’t be- Sammy pushed that aside.

“We have an ameteur radio set up in the old AM radio station.” Ben said. “We talk to a number of towns who survived, mostly because of isolation or the cold. Apparently zombies don’t move very fast in the cold, or at all really so Alaska made it out as well, and northern Canada. Also we lucked out because they don’t come this way six months out of the year.”

“Have you ever tried getting Europe or Asia on it to tell them you guys are alive? To see if you can get help. I mean I know you’re doing well but the town is going to run out of supplies, the medicine and the canned soup isn’t going to last forever.” Sammy asked. Why wouldn’t people get out of here if they could? Leave the Americas to the zombies and survive elsewhere. Sure they’d be refugees, but they’d be alive.

“Uh, no.” Ben shook his head putting down a four. He got a weird look on his face, something akin to confusion and then he shook it off as he picked up Jack’s two. “Do you think we should?”

Sammy shrugged. He flipped up a king and noticed that Ben had as well. “Guess this means war.”

“Yeah.” Ben laughed as they each placed three more face down cards. “Three, two, one.” Sammy flipped up a Jack while Ben only had a nine.

“Looks like I get one of your aces.” Sammy remarked as he flipped open the upside down cards to look over his loot.

“Damn.”

Sammy flipped up an ace and took Ben’s three, and then lost a ten to a queen. “I won’t say don’t think about the zombie. You’ll only dwell on it harder. And to be honest you don’t just get over it. It takes time, and being surrounded by people you love to get over trauma.” Sammy knew he sounded like something out of a psychology textbook as he spoke. “But the human mind is very good at recovering from trials like this one. Its designed to protect itself.”

“How do you deal?” Ben asked quietly, his card still unflipped.

Sammy took a deep breath before responding. “Badly I suppose. I have a tendency to run away from my problems. But you can’t run away from the zombies, they like to follow and wait until you’re unsuspecting. Lily used to call me a quitter, she might have been right. I-” Sammy stopped and sighed, trying to think of the best thing to say. “I don’t forget their faces, I see them every night as I try to fall asleep. Especially the ones I knew before I killed them.”

“Can I- is that-” Ben fumbled for words. “Is that what happened with Jack, did you have to kill him too?”

Sammy shook his head. “I wouldn’t still be here if I had.” He whispered. Ben nodded and glanced down before looking back up at Sammy. “Being around people that you care about will make this better.”

“And you?”

“I’ll be fine.” Sammy assured him. He was always fine, he had to be. That was the way you survived, the way he had survived. Everything from being shunned by his parents to losing Jack.

“You could make a home here.” Ben suggested. “Live here with us, heal here.” Sammy chuckled to himself at the sincerity in Ben’s voice. It reminded Sammy so much like Jack.

“I have to find Jack.” Sammy said. “He’s out there, waiting for me.”

“And after?”

After? Sammy really hadn’t thought too much about after. One thing you learned when trying to survive the apocalypse is that you don’t think too far ahead. You take things mostly one day at a time, you look at the future one goal at a time. Right now that goal was finding Jack. “Maybe.” He hedged. Jack would love King Falls, Sammy had gone out to see a little bit of the town while Ben had gone searching in the woods for Jack’s ring. It was quiet, and everyone seemed friendly. Mary had chatted his ear off about her kid and her husband Tim who used to be a mill foreman but was now a member of the power generator team. They went out and made sure that the power lines were maintained and that the hydroelectric plant was still working along the Saddleback Creek. Jack had always wanted to live in a small town, it was Sammy, with too many bad memories of that tiny community in Florida he’d grown up in, that had insisted they stick to the bigger cities. Plus if Ben stories about the town having supernatural run in was correct, it would be right up Jack’s wheelhouse.

Maybe Lily would stay with them too. Jack would like that, Jack had always regretted leaving Lily behind when they left Florida to be shock jocks. And Sammy had enjoyed traveling with Lily for the most part. She kept a clear head during stressful times, and she knew how to push Sammy and Jack into being better people. Sammy was sure he would have given up many times had Lily not been there, had Jack not been there depending on him. How he had survived the past six months, he wasn’t sure. Not well since he’d taken a spear to the shoulder. He hadn’t gotten injured like that ever during their travels. He’d gotten sick once, well bad sick, something more than just a cold.

A stomach bug of some kind that had left him knocked off of his feet for about a week. They had been in southern Illinois for that incident, and holed up in an old abandoned house. The group they had been traveling with left them, that wasn’t unusual. Many times traveling groups were just a couple of family units banded together for protection, they took in smaller groups and individuals for a few weeks or months of traveling, but it wasn’t unusual to leave the smaller groups behind if they became a liability.

Jack slept beside him every night while he had been sick. Jack never got sick, not once could Sammy remember him being sick even as far back as college. Jack had claimed he had a really good immune system, but now that he couldn’t even be infected by the zombie virus Sammy wondered if whatever the Science Institute had done had prevented Jack from getting sick from normal stuff as well.

“Thank you.” Ben said. “For the advice.”

“Oh, it was um- it was not a problem.” Sammy said.

“And good luck finding Jack. I hope you find him.”

Ben left after helping Sammy gather up the cards and putting them back into the drawer on the nightstand. They had decided to say that the game was a draw since it had been abandoned, but Sammy had had the bigger stack of cards. After he heard Ben go into the room next door, Sammy turned the light off and stared up at the ceiling above.

He felt like a fraud. He felt like a fucking fraud. He was good at putting on a show, at being friendly with strangers he had never met before. Years of being on the radio had taught him how to do that. Telling Ben that things were going to be okay, that he could overcome the trauma, that being arounds friends and family helped. Where did he Sammy Stevens get away with telling some kid that?

He knew it was what Ben needed to hear though. And that was all that mattered. The kid was growing on him, Sammy knew he shouldn’t refer to Ben as kid, that was an influence of Lily who called everyone who was naive kid. The guy was probably only a few younger than Sammy was himself.

_**He was in his and Jack’s apartment in Chicago. He could hear music coming from one of the bedrooms that doubled as their guest bedroom and the office. Was that Tchaikovsky or Shostakovitch? That was tuba so Shostakovitch. Jack liked to play classical music while he worked on the next week’s shows or did his research on the supernatural. Sammy was learning so much about old dead Russian composers. Sammy was in front of the stove cooking stir fry in the skillet. Since he knew Jack would spend the entire afternoon holed up in the office working or researching Sammy had decorated the kitchen and dining room in candles and had a bouquet of tulips and lilies sitting in a vase on the table. Something romantic because Jack kept joking that Sammy didn’t have a romantic bone in his body. He did, he just didn’t prefer big over the top gestures.** _

**_Stir fry was Jack’s favorite, stir fry and those dumplings from the Chinese place a block over. Speaking of which- a knock at the door alerted Sammy to the delivery guy._ **

**_“Jack, dinner.” He shouted as he set the table, pulling out a bottle of wine that he had hidden for just this occasion. “Jack?”_ **

**_Shostakovitch_ _was suddenly off. As if the music had never been playing in the first place. “Jack?” He said again going to the door of the office. “Dinner.” There was no response. “Jack.” He opened the door to the office, his heart pounding. But there wasn’t anybody in there. In fact all there was the pullout couch that guest slept on when they had guests which was rare since neither he nor Jack was out and therefore didn’t want friends to know they slept in the same bedroom._ **

**_The desk Jack worked at, his notebooks, his laptop were gone. The posters of the cliche horror movies that Jack loved so much were also gone. “Jack!” Sammy rushed to their bedroom. Jack’s shoes that he always tripped over were gone, and the pillows were arranged differently. The Star Wars alarm clock that Jack had gotten him as a joke a few years back was also missing. It was as if Jack Wright had never existed and Sammy was alone. “Jack.” Sammy shouted, “Jack, where are you? Jack!”_ **

“Sammy.”

Sammy stared into the face of Ben Arnold. The sun was poking itself above the treeline on the mountains giving the sky that Sammy could see through the window a reddish-gold tint. “Are you okay?” Ben asked, backing up just slightly. “You were screaming for Jack.”

It was an old nightmare, one that had popped up after Jack had been taken. One that had given him away to those homophobic fucks who had stabbed him and carved obscenities into his chest. These days he seemed to alternate between Jack missing and the zombie one. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a dream.” Sammy said. “It happens.”

“I had one too.” Ben admitted. “I dreamed that the zombies really had invaded King Falls, that we hadn’t survived. I woke up because you were screaming though, right before Greg Frickard could turn me into a zombie.”

“Greg Frickard?”

“He’s an asshole. One of those ‘nice guys’ douchebags.” Ben had even used air quotes and everything. Sammy chuckled, his heart had stopped pounding so hard and so he sat up, patting the spot beside him for Ben.

“Well I’m glad you didn’t zombiefied by Greg Frickard.” He put his arm around Ben’s shoulder. “New day, another night we made it through.” Jack used to say it to him back when everything first went to hell. A reminder that they were seeing another sun rise, another day to make it through and another day to survive. And they would make it through that day as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a bit early, but tomorrow is going to be busy for me so I figured I'd drop this a day early. Thanks for reading and sticking with me. Chapter three may be late as it is due to come out the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I will try to have it up sometime the week after. Thank you to everyone who left kudos and comments on chapter one, they were all cherished and gave me something to look forward to during a couple of trying weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to try to update every two weeks, this might change as I am in law school so finals keep me very busy around December, but hopefully since I'm a few chapters ahead already I can keep up the schedual.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading this and I hope you enjoy. Can't wait for #before2019 when we can get regular King Falls Episodes again.


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